These photos appeared on the front page of The Denver Post on Dec. 30, 1915, in the afternoon edition after Harry Houdini made good on his guarantee that he could escape any contraption Denver police put on him, as he dangled from a chain upside down over The Denver Post building near 16th and Champa streets before a crowd of 7,000.

Denver has always opened it arms to a flamboyant showman — P.T. Barnum, Buffalo Bill Cody, Duane “Dog” Chapman, to name a few. But no star could shine brighter over the Mile High City than Harry Houdini. A century later, his is still the brand name for escape, showmanship and skepticism; Denver was a crossroads for all three.

Houdini often played Denver’s Orpheum Theater, part of the Orpheum vaudeville circuit he joined when he was 25 years old in 1899, after impressing owner Martin Beck in a beer hall in St. Paul, Minn.

It was two days before the new year in 1915 that The Denver Post played host to Houdini’s largest city stage at 16th and Champa streets, as a crowd estimated at 7,000 gathered to watch him escape a seemingly impossible bind as he dangled from a chain above the newspaper’s front door.

Safe to say this was a publicity stunt Houdini cooked up with the newspaper’s co-owner and self-described yellow journalist Harry Tammen (who once said, “The public not only likes to be fooled — it insists upon it”) and the city’s new police chief. Houdini claimed the DPD had issued him a challenge from which he could not back down. As he speaks to a Post reporter the 41-year-old Wisconsinite allegedly “smooths his curly hair and smiles,” according to the Dec. 28, 1915, edition

“And since it is to be a contest, it might as well be in public,” Houdini declared. “I have escaped before and I will escape again, unless you have a set of wizards on the police department.”

From 1950 to 1989, The Denver Post was in a building at the corner of 15th and California. At the time, people could take tours of the newsroom and the printing operation that was all housed in one place.

Each person who went on a tour of the newsroom and the press plant took some pieces of The Denver Post home with them. The packet included ticker tape from a Linotype machine, a piece of wire copy, a pamphlet on how to make a pressman’s hat and a special printing of the newspaper. The paper included some of the biggest stories in Denver Post history. The edition also mentioned popular Denver Post writers like Dan Partner, Leonard Larsen and Pat Oliphant.

I ran across one of these envelopes in an antique shop in northwest Denver and just had to have it. Based on the information in the special edition newspaper and the wire copy included, I’ve concluded that this tour packet in particular was handed out between August 1972 and April 1975.

In the 1980s, the printing press moved to a new location near I-70 and I-25, likely lowering the popularity of tours at The Denver Post. Today’s newsroom is quite different. There’s no printing press in the building, but that in-office role has been filled by the online team that is constantly updating the website.

Did you or a family member take a tour of The Denver Post building between the 1950s and 1980s? Tell us about your experience and if you have the souvenir packet, contact me because we’d love to see it.

Also, take a look at the pages below. The stories that are featured in this edition are some great moments in American history. What would you print in an edition like this today? Let us know in the comments.

This is a page from a special edition tour newspaper that was given to people when they toured The Denver Post Building sometime in the 1970s. It included reprints of famous front pages from history including Charles Lindbergh's solo flight across the Atlantic and the moon landing in 1969.

This is a page from a special edition tour newspaper that was given to people when they toured The Denver Post Building sometime in the 1970s. It included reprints of famous front pages from history including Charles Lindbergh's solo flight across the Atlantic and the moon landing in 1969.

This is a page from a special edition tour newspaper that was given to people when they toured The Denver Post Building sometime in the 1970s. It included reprints of famous front pages from history including Charles Lindbergh's solo flight across the Atlantic and the moon landing in 1969.

This is a page from a special edition tour newspaper that was given to people when they toured The Denver Post Building sometime in the 1970s. It included reprints of famous front pages from history including Charles Lindbergh's solo flight across the Atlantic and the moon landing in 1969.

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